Vacation!!!!!
It is been SOOO long since my last post. Brandon and I have been traveling all around the Mid-west, visiting family and friends along the way. It is so refreshing to spend time with those we care about so deeply. God protected us a we traveled and truly blessed our time in each destination. There were many highlights during this trip! We got to: meet some friend's newly adopted daughter, have a mini college reunion, visit my hometown's new water park which is my dad's brainchild, attend my mom's family reunion, visit the boyhood home of Mark Twain, watch LOTS of Olympics, eat WONDERFUL food, have great conversations, laugh, cry and pray (we did so many other wonderful things too, but I can't mention each of them)! Yes, it was a bit hard to come home after 18 days filled with fun and adventure, but home is reality and it is good to live in the reality of the day... right?
Adoption!!!!!
Over the past several months God had really grown my (our) hearts in the area of adoption. As many of you know, we have walked the road of infertility for 3.5 years. We yearn to be parents and leave a legacy of love to our children, but my womb seems to remain closed. The medical community tells us we have a 1% chance of conceiving, but we know that nothing is too hard for our great God if that is His desire for us to conceive. Adoption is something we have always wanted to do. God has given us a huge heart for orphans and orphan care around the world and in the US. God has adopted me as a sinner and as a gentile to be His child. How awesome that we can welcome a child into our home and hearts! As we learn about adopting a child, my relationship with God my adopted Father grows! We now wonder what agency and country to choose... and so the research begins with info packets arriving in the mail and late night internet searches (we welcome your agency suggestions)! A wise friend told me to pray that God would lead us to our children, so that is what I continue to pray. Please join us in this prayer! We have received lots of advice and cautions about adoption so although we are excited, we understand the realities at least in part. We have chosen for the first time around to do an international infant adoption. At some point, as God leads we would like to adopt older children both domestically and internationally, but as first time parents, we prayerfully feel that an infant is a good place to begin. So many countries are appealing, so I won't give any hints yet, but we are excited!
Cooking
I have Celiac Disease, which means no gluten (wheat, oats, barley, rye etc). I also can't have dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, cream), or sugar (refined sugar, sweetners, corn syrup, anything with "ose" at the end). When I travel people often wonder what I eat and worry about what to feed me. I know that there are others who have food issues just like me, so I have decided to start adding recipes to my blog as I cook them. Hopefully this will help others with Celiac and food allergies learn how to create wonderful meals using foods which are usually cheap and easy to find! When I first found out about these diet restrictions I spent WAY too much money on fancy gluten free foods. After several expensive grocery bills I decided to try to modify normal foods and this has worked very well!
Reading "Gideon Stories" to Gideon an the end of our vacation! I was so excited to give Gideon this book of our memories together. I think it turned out very well!
My beautiful sister-in-law and I sporting the latest fashion in "cup" ponytails! My hair is not long enough, or the cup was too big... or both, but when it is done right, it looks so cool. You can also do two cups with pig-tails!
Standing with my wonderful dad in the water park that he is in charge of (he is the town's Park and Recreation Director)! I am so proud of him and so thankful for our special tour before it opened that day.
